Mikia Kalati
MASERU — Lesotho got a relatively tough draw when they were pooled in Group B alongside Seychelles, Botswana and Kenya in the Cosafa Cup tournament in a draw conducted in Lusaka on Friday.
The other group consists of Swaziland, Mauritius, Namibia, and Tanzania who will take part in the tournament as guest teams.
South Africa, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the seeded teams and will enter the tournament at the later stage.
The tournament will run from July 6 to 20 in Lusaka, Zambia.
Lesotho national team coach, Leslie Notsi, told the Sunday Express on Friday that the tournament will give Likuena a chance to show they have come of age at the regional level.
“It’s a very interesting draw and we cannot take the other teams in our group lightly based on their recent failure to participate in major qualifiers of the continental competitions and the World Cup,” Notsi said.
“We want to go there and prove that we can compete against any team at any time.”
Notsi said they should go to the Lusaka tournament to prove that they are now a formidable team.
“This will be the stage for Likuena to show their quality and make a name for our country at the regional level,” said Notsi.
“We have played against big continental teams and came up with positive results and the Cosafa Cup will be the stage to show that we are now even better,” he said.
Likuena were unlucky in the last regional tournament staged in Harare in 2009 where they went out without losing as Zimbabwe who finished as group leaders had a better goal difference.
“I still remember that very well as we were unlucky to go out of the tournament without losing. The home team had a better goal difference than us and went to the next stage of the tournament,” said Notsi.
He told this paper that he expects a better performance from his team this year.
“We have a better team now and the tournament will also be a good stage to prepare for the upcoming phase of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,” he said.
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